Title

Author

Submission Date

4-25-2016

Document Type

Paper

Department

Chemistry

Adviser

Ronald Hess

Committee Member

Ronald Hess

Committee Member

Victor Tortorelli

Committee Member

Leah Joseph

Department Chair

Mark Ellison

Project Description

This work describes synthetic methodology development in organic chemistry. The goal of this work is to demonstrate new ways of making biologically-relevant molecules that are in line with the principles of green chemistry (chemical practices which seek to be, regarding human and environmental health, benign by design). To this end, a new method has been developed toward the introduction of primary amine functionalities into organic molecules from readily-available aldehydes, via reduction of nitroalkene intermediates. Traditional methods of reducing nitroalkenes to primary amines require harsh conditions, often produce stoichiometric amounts of metal salt waste, and present significant safety challenges to the chemist. The method described herein employs metal-catalysis to effect this same transformation under mild conditions.